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Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Retrospective #39: Fad Diet or Diet Trend?

Edgy diet plans are often described as fads, and
they usually are. The Stillman Diet, 50 years ago, was high protein, 8 glasses
of water, and amphetamines (!), as I recall. I was on it, and I lost 65 pounds.
After a while, fortunately, I tired of it and switched to ‘the grapefruit
diet.’ That too was a fad diet, and today there are many such examples that do
not deserve consideration or even mention here.

Recent diet trends are a lot healthier. They are rooted
in “real food.” This began, I think, with the concept of organic foods. This
trend evolved to include another dimension besides health: to try to do the “right
thing,” take the high road, adopt a moral and ethical way of eating and living.
To illustrate, responding on the Oprah program to a question about eliminating
meat from the diet, Michael Pollan said, “That’s a personal choice. I could eat
meat in …(a) very limited way, from farmers who were growing it in a way [grass
fed and finished] that I could feel good about how the animal lived – and that
we’re not taking that grain [corn] away from people who need that food.”

Michael Pollan publicized the grass-fed movement
in his best-selling, compelling book, “The Omnivore’s Dilemma.” It was followed by other derivative books by
him and others urging that we eat “real food.” This was a back-to-the-future
moment for me. It advocates that we eat only the “real food” that is found on
the perimeter in the side or rear of the modern supermarket. The idea is to
avoid processed and manufactured food sold in boxes and bags.

“Grass fed” is different from “grass fed – grass
finished”. The latter means 100% grass fed. Grain
fed for just a few weeks in the “finishing” period will change the critical Omega
6/Omega 3 ratio. Thus, “the devil is in the details.” The best practice is to ask the grower, and
that means buying meat from the
grower. And grass finished is
difficult in winter in northern climes, a New York grower told me. See
eatwild.com for a list of grass-fed/finished producers.

Eggs are another matter. Eggs are inexpensive and
a complete source of protein and fat. I eat a lot of eggs, but I see them often
advertised as laid by hens fed a vegetarian diet. Chickens are omnivores, so I
want hens that eat insects naturally, in a pastured setting. “Free range” and
“cage free” don’t do it for me. That means they spend their entire lives
confined under a roof, eating a mostly corn meal diet, with soy. A hen that
eats such a vegetarian diet is going to produce eggs that have too many Omega 6’s
and not enough Omega 3’s. “Pastured eggs” are worth it to me.

I buy eggs at farmers’ markets where I know the
purveyors. I’ve been to their farms, and I know
their hens are pastured. That means they are moved weekly from pasture to
pasture (with their portable coop) to places where cows, sheep or pigs have
recently grazed. And I also know the eggs I buy are fresh (AA) – only a few
days old.

The latest, big trend in dieting (in 2012) is
Paleo, based on anthropologic and ethnographic antecedents. One of my favorite
blogs, since lost to the ether, was Archevore, by Kurt Harris, MD. His basic
premise: avoid the Neolithic Agents of Disease (NAD). NAD is his phrase to
describe changes in the human diet
that were introduced with the advent of the Neolithic Age 10,000 years ago.
They are 1) wheat (and the closely related gluten grains barley and rye); 2) excess
amounts of fructose; and 3) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA’s) from processed
vegetable oils.

The Paleo trend has generated considerable
discussion online. Controversy centering on “safe starches” emerged at the 1st
Ancestral Health Symposium in Los Angeles. This was a debate between the ‘establishment’
low-carb community, many of whom are Type 2 diabetics or Pre-diabetics, and the
emergent Paleo crowd that tended to be younger, healthier and interested in a
program that may prevent and even heal “middle age and chronic health problems
through diet.”

In 2012 Paleo was newly
popular as a modern diet trend and was still evolving (pardon the pun). It also
had a broader potential application, as it is not intended solely for those who have a diagnosed metabolic
disorder (e.g. Type 2 diabetes), or Insulin Resistance or symptoms of Metabolic
Syndrome, evidenced by obesity. In that sense, it was a debate between the Prophylactic
and the Therapeutic dieters: how to stay healthy vs. how to regain your health. For more on that, scroll down for
Retrospectives #36 and #37. For “safe starches,” see the next post.

About Me

I was diagnosed a Type 2 diabetic in 1986. I started a Very Low Carb diet (Atkins Induction) in 2002 to lose weight. I didn’t realize at the time that it would put my diabetes in clinical remission, or that I would be able to give up almost all of my oral diabetes meds. I also didn’t understand that, as I lost weight and continued to eat Very Low Carb, my blood lipids would dramatically improve (doubling my HDL and cutting my triglycerides by 2/3rds) and that my blood pressure would drop from 130/90 to 110/70 on the same meds.
Over the years I changed from Atkins to the Bernstein Diet (designed for diabetics) and, altogether lost 170 pounds. I later regained some and then lost some. As long as I eat Very Low Carb, I am not hungry and I have lots of energy. And I no longer have any of the indications of Metabolic Syndrome.
My goal, as long as I have excess body fat, is to remain continuously in a ketogenic state, both for blood glucose regulation and continued weight loss. I expect that this regimen will continue to provide the benefits of reduced systemic inflammation, improved blood lipids and lower blood pressure as well.